Post subject: Re: Space to post things that do not go with any other topic

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 3:31 am

Drinks Wild Tofurkey

Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2010 2:18 amPosts: 2742Location: England

ijustdiedinside wrote:

That is great! I can imagine how awesome that is. I love peter davison so much. I watched all of the last detective recently and I think I'll watch campion next!

A Very Peculiar Practice!!!!! It is all you need, ever. It is part filmed at the University my husband and I went to, and part at the one where my husband works, because they didn't want it to be identified with any one place. We have great fun spotting the joins. And, it's awesome.

Post subject: Re: Space to post things that do not go with any other topic

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 4:53 am

Seagull of the PPK

Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2010 6:46 pmPosts: 10097Location: Bananaland

I think that maybe, just maybe, the idea that german is funny comes from comedy traditions of imitating those wacky german characters that one may find around the world outside of germany. Just from my own life I can remember some german guys playing air guitar and smoking hash in a youth hostel in DC, trying to figure out how to jump off the roof safely..... the german guy we met in Japan who was biking through the [uninhabited] volcanic mountains of niigata, camping on the side of the road and towing a cart with his houseplants behind his bike.... german tourists getting the hell burned out of their skin on the beach here and being perfectly OK with it.....my german client, an otherwise serious engineer, that rode a harley to work using a helmet with a kaiser wilhelm spike.

not that germans are any stranger than anyone else. i know wackos from all over the world. but the image of the german person with strange [un-american] interests and, ESPECIALLY, a high-pitched sing-song accent is comedy gold- mad scientists, SNL with Hanz und Franz and Sprockets, performance artists, etc.

Post subject: Re: Space to post things that do not go with any other topic

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 5:51 am

Seagull of the PPK

Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2010 6:46 pmPosts: 10097Location: Bananaland

linanil wrote:

I think Korean sound angry.

my husband grew up not speaking japanese, and he had a set of grandparents that only spoke japanese. he and his brothers HATED to go visit them because it sounded (to the kids) like the old people were always yelling at them. i can only laugh because i know the old people were surely just trying to communicate.

in college when i learned my own 10 languages, i had a friend who was studying mongolian. now THAT is a scary, angry sounding language!!! makes klingon sound like french. i loved to hear her speak it.

Post subject: Re: Space to post things that do not go with any other topic

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 6:15 am

Semen Strong

Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2010 7:10 pmPosts: 22108Location: Cliffbar NJ

How are they using the "found" Germanisms? German is my favorite language. I honestly love it and it makes something in my soul happy when I speak it. I've spoken it since I was 6 and associate it with many many happy memories. And so I don't "get" the humor.

I once read a New Yorker article about the linguistics of humor and apparently harder sounds like Js and Ks are very "funny" sounds so those are used in joke punch lines more often than other sounds, and German has a lot of them.

Plus it plays into an unfortunate stereotype about Germans in many cases.

I'm watching all the episodes of Scrubs and they use the German thing a lot. I think bc Sarah Chalke can speak it.

ETA: 10 languages! Torque you're a badass :)

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

Post subject: Re: Space to post things that do not go with any other topic

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 7:11 am

Invented Vegan Meringue

Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2010 1:31 pmPosts: 4068Location: Graz, Austria

@ Tofulish: Oh just throwing in the occasional "Frühstück" and "Autobahn" and finding it super entertaining.I guess it's just a bit weird for me, because the other way round it's so different. English words are omnipresent and are still considered "young" and "hip" and whatnot.

Post subject: Re: Space to post things that do not go with any other topic

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 8:31 am

Moving To Sheepshead Bay

Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2010 7:08 pmPosts: 5996Location: WV

It's really strange to me how the light of a new morning wipes away all the emotional darkness of the night for me. I just kind of wish that the hours between 9pm and 11pm didn't exist sometimes though.

_________________But if one were to tickle Pluto, I suspect that it might very quietly laugh. - pandacookie

55k usd is like 4 cad or whatever equivalent in beavers you use on the island - joshua

Post subject: Re: Space to post things that do not go with any other topic

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 9:51 am

Semen Strong

Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2010 7:10 pmPosts: 22108Location: Cliffbar NJ

Phoenix wrote:

@ Tofulish: Oh just throwing in the occasional "Frühstück" and "Autobahn" and finding it super entertaining.I guess it's just a bit weird for me, because the other way round it's so different. English words are omnipresent and are still considered "young" and "hip" and whatnot.

People do the "cool" use of words for French here too. Like showing that you know another language but also that you're hip enough that you can use it ironically.

One of my friends answers her emails with a smattering of misspelled French words used wrong. Like inviting me for a petit dej when she means lunch. Its unintentional and supercute

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

Post subject: Re: Space to post things that do not go with any other topic

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 11:15 am

Wears Durian Helmet

Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2013 11:28 amPosts: 866Location: Quebec, Canada

In my first german lesson, students were not allowed to leave the class before they were able to pronounce streichholzschächtelchen (which means a small box of matches, if my memory's right). But Rhabarbermarmeladeladen is something too.

Post subject: Re: Space to post things that do not go with any other topic

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 11:21 am

Prefers Jar Jar Binks over Han Solo

Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2010 2:54 amPosts: 2392Location: Munich, finally!

Today I had two meetings that went pretty well, summarized them for my boss, arranged three interviews, and organized a school visit for May (mostly). The rest of the day was spent in lunch, BBC news, PPK, G+, and cake wrecks. I'm not sure in which favour is the production balance.

_________________I dunno, I guess I just get enthused over eating big ol' squishy balls. - Interrobang?!

Post subject: Re: Space to post things that do not go with any other topic

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 11:29 am

Should Spend More Time Helping the Animals

Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2010 8:03 pmPosts: 6308Location: The State Of No R's

Minatomachi wrote:

This thread is impressive. I could never read it through.

The beauty of this thread is that you don't have to read through it to know what we're talking about now because we're literally just chit chatting about random things. The other part of this threads beauty is that when you're bored at work, it's fun to read through this thread.

_________________"...anarchists only want to burn cars and punch cops."- nickvicious"We'll be eating our own words 30 years from now when we're demanding our legislators outlaw aerosol-based cyber dildo-wielding death holograms."- Brian

Post subject: Re: Space to post things that do not go with any other topic

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 11:29 am

Invented Vegan Meringue

Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2010 1:31 pmPosts: 4068Location: Graz, Austria

Ooooh. Love the Rhabarbermarmeladeladen. Which is not that obvious to us Austrians, since we don't say "Laden" for shop, we say "Geschäft". But I'm aware (because of a TV ad some years ago) that you can say "Schoko-Lade" (like chocolate) and mean the drawer the chocolates are kept in ("Schublade" or just "Lade"). So there could also be a Schokoladenlade (chocolate drawer) or Schoko-Laden / Schokoladenladen (chocolate shop). Heh.Now I'm beginning to find it funny myself. (And yes, it's definitely the structure.)

Thanks for the change in perspective. I had to actively step out of my own everyday experience of the language surrounding me in order to see it. (Yay. Love these things.)